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Title Pachappa Camp

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Journal California History, 95(3)

ISSN 0162-2897

Authors Chang, Edward T Brown, Hannah

Publication Date 2018-08-01

DOI 10.1525/ch.2018.95.3.46

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California EDWARD T. CHANG AND HANNAH BROWN

Pachappa Camp The First Koreatown in the United States

ABSTRACT Ahn Chang Ho (also known by his pen name, Dosan) moved to Riverside, California, in March 1904 and soon established the first Koreatown on the U.S. mainland, known as Dosan’s Republic or Pachappa Camp. Dosan helped found a local employment agency and negotiated relations with citrus farmers to find work for Koreans who lived in the community. With steady work available, Riverside became a popular destination for Korean immigrants and was thus an ideal location for the Gongnip Hyeophoe, or Cooperative Association, which Dosan created to foster a sense of community. The Gong- nip Hyeophoe later expanded to Korean settlements throughout California and eventually developed into the Korean National Association, which proved especially significant in organizing immigrants to fight for Korea’s independence in the wake of Japanese colonization in 1910. Pachappa Camp helped anchor its residents’ identity and supported Koreans’ struggles to support themselves and to fight for Korean sovereignty. The experiences of the Koreans in Pachappa Camp reflected not only exceptional moments in Korean American history, as the first Koreatown in the United States and one of the seats of the independence movement, but also the ubiquitous experiences that typified immigrant lives in the United States. The City of Riverside erected a statue of Ahn Chang Ho in 2001, and designated the orig- inal site of the camp as a “Point of Cultural Interest” in 2017, to honor Dosan and to teach about his legacy and connection to Riverside. Because the historic Koreatown no longer exists, the designation and statue stand as the only remembrances of this pioneering community. KEYWORDS: Koreatown, Ahn Chang Ho, Korean Labor Bureau, Riverside, Pachappa Camp

OREAN AMERICAN IDENTITY LIES not within the current Hallyu (Korean) Wave trend, but in K history. Today, second- and third-generation Korean Americans have little knowl- edge of the substantial contributions and activities of their forefathers who came to the United States in the early 1900s and founded organizations, businesses, churches, and even an aviation school. Currently, the heart of the Korean American community is located in mid-Wilshire Los Angeles, and Hallyu’s significance is rooted here. But, as population growth and demographic shifts reshape Los Angeles, the Korean American community is slowly moving away to other cities, counties, and states.

California History, Vol. 95, Number 3, pp. 46–56, ISSN 0162-2897, electronic ISSN 2327-1485. © 2018 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2018.95.3.46

46 FALL 2018 Korean Americans are also moving to Riverside, California, home of the first Korean-or- ganized immigrant settlement. The settlement was founded by Ahn Chang Ho (also known by his pen name, Dosan), who moved to Riverside in March 1904 and soon established the first Koreatown on the U.S. mainland sometime in early 1905, known as Dosan’s Republic or Pachappa Camp. Dosan founded a Korean Labor Bureau in Riverside and negotiated rela- tions with citrus farmers to find work for Koreans who lived in the area. With steady work available, Riverside became a popular destination for Korean immigrants and was thus an ideal location for the Gongnip Hyeophoe, or Cooperative Association, which Dosan created to foster a sense of community. The Gongnip Hyeophoe later expanded to Korean settlements throughout Califor- nia and eventually developed into the Korean National Association (KNA), which proved especially significant in organizing immigrants to fight for Korea’s indepen- dence in the wake of Japanese colonization in 1910. Pachappa Camp both helped an- chor its residents’ identity and supported Koreans’ struggles to support themselves and to fight for Korean sovereignty. The experiences of the Koreans in Pachappa Camp reflected not only exceptional moments in Korean American history, as the first Korean-organized settlement in the United States, and was one of the seats of the in- dependence movement, but also the ubiquitous experiences that typified immigrant lives in America. The City of Riverside erected a statue of Ahn Chang Ho in 2001 to honor him and to teach visitors and residents about his legacy in, and connection to, the city. Because the historic Koreatown no longer exists, the statue stands as the only site of remembrance for this pio- neering community. Korean Americans moving to this once citrus-rich city will find that their heritage is deeply rooted in the community and that their identities have a meaningful history that resonates to this day. Designated as a “Point of Cultural Interest” by the City of Riverside (on March 23, 2017), the site of Pachappa Camp serves as an educational and cul- tural landmark. Understanding the historical context and significance of such sites will aid and nourish young Korean Americans who are searching for identity and community con- sciousness. Dosan organized, educated, and mobilized Korean immigrants in the United States. He told Korean immigrants to become good citizens with a sense of civic responsibility to America and Korea. Working as a farmhand in Riverside, Dosan told his fellow country- men to work hard and diligently: “Our only capital today in this land is nothing but hon- esty; therefore, work diligently without wasting time whether your employer watches you or not.”1 In this article, we intend to locate Riverside as one of the most important historical sites of Dosan’s exile in America.2 More importantly, we argue that Pachappa Camp or Dosan’s Republic, the two colloquial names for the site, located in downtown Riverside, should be known as the first Koreatown in the United States. Koreans lived scattered throughout cities, including San Francisco and Honolulu, and had not established their own distinct neighbor- hood until they did so in Riverside.3 In Hawaii, the Korean Methodist Mission was estab- lished in November 1903, but most of its members listed Ewa Plantation as their home address. Thus, Koreans in Hawaii had no formal, Korean-organized settlement of their own at the time.

CALIFORNIA HISTORY 47 Moreover, it is important to note that Koreans used San Francisco as a port of entry and as a temporary site where they could gather information about other cities and loca- tions in the United States. San Francisco housed Koreans in various locations, but the community had no formalized Koreatown or settlement. In fact, Koreans who went to San Francisco faced strong anti-Asian sentiment and left the bustling port city because of a lack of job opportunities. Meanwhile, in Riverside, Pachappa Camp grew around the Korean Labor Bureau (1905), which aided Koreans in finding jobs, primarily in agriculture in the region. With work readily available, Koreans in Pachappa Camp launched a number of community activi- ties, including a Korean Presbyterian mission, social organizations such as the Gongnip Hyeophoe, a discussion group, and, later on, language schools. Because of its combina- tion of attributes––sizable population, centralized living quarters, and presence of com- munity organizations and businesses––Pachappa Camp meets the criteria for an ethnic enclave as laid out by sociologist Mark Abrahamson.4

THE KOREAN LABOR BUREAU AND AHN CHANG HO

Dosan and his wife came to the United States to learn English and to study Christianity on October 14, 1902. After a brief stay in San Francisco, they moved to Riverside on March 23, 1904. There are several reasons why Dosan and his wife relocated to Riverside. First, with the large Asian population in San Francisco, anti-Asian sentiment was very high, and it proved extremely difficult to find employment opportunities for Koreans in the area. Second, Riverside was one of the richest cities in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with plenty of employment opportunities in the thriving citrus industry. Finally, several friends of Dosan, including Yi Kang and Chung Chae Kwan, were already working on citrus farms in Riverside, and they urged him to join them in the south.5 In testimony that Dosan delivered before a Japanese judge later in his life, he also claimed to have moved south for a more hospitable climate.6 The employment opportunities for Koreans in Riverside consisted largely of migrant farm work; “schoolboy jobs,” which in- cluded cooking and cleaning for families; and positions in hospitality. Upon his arrival, Dosan had little difficulty finding work as a domestic helper, and he began cooking for an affluent Riverside family. Soon after settling in the community, Dosan became acquainted with Cornelius Earle Rumsey, a wealthy resident of Riverside and owner of Alta Cresta Groves, a citrus farm. Rumsey suggested to Dosan that he and other Koreans go to work in his orchards in 1904, and the offer opened up fruit picking for Koreans in Riverside.7 Previously, Koreans had faced several impediments to working in agriculture, as Japanese labor contractors held a monopoly on picking. Ranchers and farmers went through labor bureaus to hire workers, and the Japanese labor contractors in the region would contract jobs only to other Japanese immigrants.8 Despite the plethora of positions available picking and packing fruit in Riverside, Koreans found it difficult to gain contracts to work in the orchards without their own labor bureau.9 Rumsey understood Dosan’spredicamentandofferedto employ the Koreans in the city at his orchard. In addition, Rumsey loaned Dosan $1,500, with which Dosan could lease housing and office space to start an employment agency

48 FALL 2018 designed to serve Korean workers.10 In April 1905, the Korean Employment Bureau began operating from 127 Cottage Street (today 3065 Cottage Street), but by November of the same year, the bureau had moved into a larger building nearby at 1532 Pachappa Avenue. With the establishment of the Korean Labor Bureau, Dosan ensured the employment of Korean immigrants and the growth of the KoreanpopulationinRiverside. Koreans in Riverside urged Dosan to move back to San Francisco to help newly arriving immigrants find jobs and settle on the mainland. Dosan and the Gongnip Hyeophoe es- tablished a plan to relocate newly arriving Korean immigrants from Hawaii to Riverside. Bong-youn Choy explained the plan:

Physically strong and experienced Koreans were to be sent to the Riverside orchards as a sample labor force. They were told to construct their own living quarters as soon as they arrived, without asking for any money from the Americans. Then they were to organize a working team of ten men. Each man on the team was supposed to follow these working guidelines: ‘Our only capital today in this land is nothing but honesty; therefore, work diligently without wasting time whether your employer watches you or not; then you will be working not only today but tomorrow and even the whole year around. If your employer has confidence in you, then your friends, Kim, Lee, or Park, will also get jobs, because of your hard and honest work. In this way, eventually all Koreans will get jobs anywhere and at any time.’11

With the guidelines in place, newly arriving Koreans were sent to work in Riverside or- chards. The Gongnip Hyeophoe assisted the new immigrants, buying them train tickets, providing lunch boxes, and informing the conductors which train station the Koreans should get off at. In other words, the Gongnip Hyeophoe and Dosan created a plan to settle Korean immigrants in Riverside and executed it accordingly. As a result of that carefully devised plan, the number of Korean settlers in Riverside grew rapidly. According to the newspaper Gongnip Sinbo (The United Korean), there were 103 Gongnip Hyeophoe mem- bers in San Francisco and 70 in Riverside as of November 1905; those numbers had in- creased to 291 in San Francisco and 150 in Riverside by 1907.12 Including wives and children, the number of Korean residents at Pachappa Camp could be as high as 300 during the orange-picking season.13 The strategy to bring “physically strong and experienced Korean workers” seemed to sat- isfy white ranchers in Riverside, who began to hire Korean laborers. Meanwhile, Japanese laborers confronted Korean laborers for taking jobs away from them. “Japanese laborers dominated the labor force in Riverside,” reported Gongnip Sinbo:

Two years ago, Korean immigrants began to arrive and work in Riverside. Ranchers preferred to hire Korean workers and only hired Japanese laborers if additional workers were needed. Japanese workers asked ranchers, Why do you prefer hiring Korean workers over Japanese laborers? Ranch- ers responded that Korean workers are diligent and hard workers. Japanese workers did not know what to say to ranchers. Japanese laborers came to see the Korean labor contractor and asked, Why do you take jobs away from us? Korean labor contractor responded that we are not taking jobs away from you, but we work hard as instructed by ranchers.14

In early 1905, Dosan, to encourage cohesion among the group, suggested finding a larger residence to accommodate the growing population. Soon the Korean immigrants were rent- ing barracks at Pachappa Camp and moving into the rundown shacks there, thus establishing

CALIFORNIA HISTORY 49 the first organized Korean settlement, or Koreatown, in the United States.15 Never before had Koreans lived in one organized neighborhood in the continental United States. Despite the workers’ low wages, the residents saved their money and repaid Rumsey after only a month and a half. One resident of the community, Mary Paik Lee, described the poor living conditions of Pachappa Camp in her memoir:

We lived in a small one-room shack built in the 1880s. The passing of time had made the lum- ber shrink, so the wind blew through the cracks in the walls. There was no pretense of making it livable—just four walls, one window, and one door—nothing else. We put mud in the cracks to keep the wind out. The water pump served several shacks. We had to heat our bath water in a bucket over an open fire outside, then pour it into a tin tub inside. There was no gas or electricity. We used kerosene lamps, and one of my chores was to trim the wicks, clean the glass tops, and keep the bowls filled with kerosene.16

THE FIRST KOREATOWN, USA: COMMUNITY AT PACHAPPA CAMP

Although Chinese workers who constructed the Santa Fe Railroad in the late 1880s originally built and inhabited the barracks that came to be known as Pachappa Camp, Koreans were the first ethnic community to build cultural capital on the site.17 At the settlement, Koreans fostered a strong sense of community through their shared lifestyles. While men worked on farms, women participated in the everyday functions of the camp, cooking and cleaning. After long workdays, members of the community gathered at 1532 Pachappa Avenue, where they established a community center that served many roles, including as a place of religious congregation. In 1906, residents established a mission at the camp, under the care of the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Riverside.18 By 1907, there were fifty to sixty members who attended church services, held weddings, and baptized their children there. The Riverside Enterprise noted: “TheKoreanmission...hasonlybeenestablishedayear,butisastrong organization. A majority of the members are converts from the mission in Korea. . . . Boys from the mission attend the Calvary church regularly. Young people from the mother church spend almost every evening teaching the young Koreans how to read and speak the English language.”19 Noting the particularity of the community, given its number of families, the Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church described the Korean mis- sion in Riverside as “another happy group of Christians—somewhat distinguished from the other stations by the number of young wives and their children. They worship in a rented building, aided to some extent in the payment of the rent by the Calvary Presbyterian Church of Riverside. It is one of the most attractive spots in the far-famed-for-beauty town of Riverside.”20 The mission also hosted rites of passage for community members. Philip Ahn, an actor and the eldest son of Dosan, was baptized in the mission, and many couples were married there. For example, according to a wedding invitation by Mr. Soon Hak Kim, a wedding reception for Choon Sup Park and Dung Kyung Lee was held at 1532 Pachappa Avenue on August 7, 1915.21 Mr. Soon Hak Kim (1876–1919) worked as a baker at the Glenwood Hotel

50 FALL 2018 (Mission Inn). He was also the Korean Mission pastor at Pachappa Camp starting in 1914. He passed away in 1919 and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Riverside. On his tomb- stone, the inscription says that Soon Hak Kim was a member of both the KNA and the Young Korean Academy. The mission building also served as a schoolroom where first-generation immigrants learned English in the evenings and, as time went on, where their children took Korean- language classes. Unlike other Korean outposts that mostly consisted of young single men, Pachappa Camp housed families, women, and children from the beginning. Dos- an’s leadership and his rules and democratic principles for governing an autonomous community—Dosan’sRepublic—gave the camp structure. Moreover, the Korean Labor Bureau provided administrative and economic structure that residents could rely upon. Independence organizations like the Gongnip Hyeophoe, the Shinminhoe, and the KNA Riverside chapter held meetings and activities there, including lectures, discussion groups, ceremonies, and fund-raisers. Residents constructed a central dining hall where they held community and cultural activities such as wedding receptions, birthday parties, Sunday services, and more. Several sources, including Sinhan Minbo (New Korea), corroborate our thesis that Pa- chappa Camp was the first Koreatown in the United States. For example, according to a 1910 issue of that monthly publication:

A Mr. Sok Joong Ahn described Pachappa Camp as the first Dong-nae [Korean-organized American settlement]. He further states that he visited Koreans in Lompoc, Upland, Los Angeles, Redlands, and Riverside in order to verify the socioeconomic status of the Koreans living in those areas. He further states that Riverside is the first Korean community in the United States and the first KNA chapter was established in Riverside. Members of the Riverside KNA chapter frequently relocated, therefore it was uncertain the community could be maintained. However, Mr. In Soo Kim and his family, who settled in Riverside, helped negotiate rental fees and paid for those who could not afford rent. By providing leadership, they helped to maintain a cohesive community.22

Author Easurk Emsen Charr also named the Riverside Korean community the “first and largest Korean settlement in America”:

Down in the sunny Southland in those balmy spring days in Riverside, I was happy now that my cousin and his wife were with me again. They liked the place, the climate, the work, and the living conditions here as I did and the others, too. No wonder it had soon become the first largest Korean settlement in America, at least during the orange season of each year for a number of years. Sub- sequently, smaller nearby towns of Redlands, Upland, and Claremont, which were offsprings of the main settlement which was in Riverside: that is, before many of them began to move into the cities as operators of small shops, restaurants, and grocery stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco and in some eastern cities as they are found today.23

Ellen Thun sheds light on how Dosan led Korean immigrants to settle and build Pachappa Camp in Riverside: “He returned from San Francisco where he organized Koreans into forming a Friendship Association [Chinmokhoe]. . . . It brought the scattered Koreans to- gether, making their lives easier jobwise and their living conditions bearable. Koreans learned to help each other, to share their problems. It was a cooperative venture. Ahn Chang Ho led families to Pachappa Camp, in Riverside, California. Pachappa Camp worked

CALIFORNIA HISTORY 51 successfully until the failure of [the] orange crop in 1913, but the ten years [were] proof the experiment worked. Koreans lived their lifestyle, cooperatively.”24

DOSAN’ S REPUBLIC AND THE KOREAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

Pachappa Camp played a central role in assisting and organizing the larger Korean commu- nity. With Ahn Chang Ho as community leader and organizer, Koreans learned the true value of their work. Just as Choy described, these “physically strong and experienced Kore- ans” were sent to Riverside where they built their own living quarters, organized themselves into ten-man teams, and were instructed by the Gongnip Hyeophoe and Dosan to be diligent workers.25 Dosan did not consider any effort menial but viewed his time spent cooking in the houses of Riverside’s elites and picking fruit in orchards as opportunities to grow, study, and gain patience. Dosan told his coworkers in Riverside to pick with care to reduce spoilage, and he adopted techniques he learned from Rumsey, using a system developed by Harold Powell to store oranges without harming the fruit.26 He led other workers to follow his example so that they, too, approached their work with care, diligence, and purpose, thereby raising them- selves to ranks that commanded respect in America.27 Policies that Dosan implemented in Riverside would serve larger purposes several years later, as his ideas about education and meaningful work became the basis for the Korean Pro- visional Government in 1919. Thus, even the seemingly humble activities of daily life held great importance for Dosan. Despite being underpaid and working undesirable jobs, the community saw the value of its work and the larger lessons they could gain from it, and they allowed this understanding to foster a sense of community and purpose, which grew in scope with the Japanese annexation of the Korean Peninsula. The modest living conditions at Pachappa Camp both helped anchor the neighbor- hood’s identity and reflected Koreans’ struggles to support themselves and to fight for their nation’s sovereignty. In 1905, the year Japan declared Korea a protectorate, Dosan and other community leaders, such as Yi Kang, established the Gongnip Hyeophoe in Riverside.28 They intended this Cooperative Association to develop democratic policies and institutions among Koreans, with the ultimate goal of founding a democratic Korean nation. By adhering to the Gongnip Hyeophoe, residents of Dosan’sRepubliccreated complex social networks that helped tie them together, allowing for collective problem solving and promoting solidarity. The Gongnip Hyeophoe created its own policing system in which agents could enter others’ houses at will. It required residents to turn off their lights at 9 P.M., prohibited Korean women from smoking long pipes in the street, and enforced a dress code, forbidding anyone from going outside in an undershirt and encouraging the donning of a white shirt when pos- sible.29 In addition to maintaining order, these rules were designed to instill positive virtues in the residents and allowed greater cohesion to grow among them. All the community mem- bers agreed upon and followed the regulations, and the dress code distinguished residents of the settlement and followed Dosan’s philosophy of raising Koreans to command respect in America through their clean appearance. The Gongnip Hyeophoe helped individuals to learn of work and educational opportunities. Having multiple branches of the Gongnip Hyeophoe

52 FALL 2018 in Riverside, San Francisco, Redlands, and as far away as Rock Springs, Wyoming, helped in- dividuals maintain contact and gain information about hospitable regions with ready work.30 When Japan fully colonized Korea in 1910, the KNA devoted even more energy to the in- dependence movement. Because of oppression in Korea, many leaders had to organize abroad, further growing the importance of associations such as the KNA in the United States. The KNA had regional offices throughout the mainland, with a separate Hawaiian branch and a central headquarters originally located in San Francisco. Each branch sent del- egates to represent its city at the organization’s annual meeting, where members elected the central board and president and established policies for the coming year. In 1911, Riverside hosted the delegates’ conference, revealing the importance of that branch’sdevotionto the independence movement. At the convention, one of the delegates, Kang Myeong-hwa, remarked that the implementation of the Gongnip Hyeophoe and its successor, the KNA, formed the basis of a “splendid Dosan’s Republic” in Riverside.31

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DOSAN’ S MEMORIAL IN RIVERSIDE

Pachappa Camp thrived until 1918, but it was forced to shut down when many members re- located to Los Angeles, as well as to central and northern California.32 On January 31, 1918, Sinhan Minbo reported the closure of the “Commemorative Riverside Chapter” of the KNA, stating that its Pachappa Avenue location was the “birthplace” of the Korean National Asso- ciation of North America. Sinhan Minbo’s report made it clear that the Riverside chapter had a longer history and played more important roles in the organization than the Los Angeles chapter. The fact that Sinhan Minbo used terms such as historic and commemorative to de- scribe Pachappa Camp and the Riverside chapter of the KNA corroborates its status as the first Koreatown in America. Indeed, Pachappa Camp was not only the first Koreatown in America, but also the center of the early Korean American community and the Korean inde- pendence movement. By the 1940s, the actual Korean pioneers had disappeared from Riverside. The 1920 U.S. Census recorded only eight or nine Korean families living in Riverside, none of whom occu- pied homes along Pachappa Avenue (renamed Commerce Street in 1954) or adjacent Cottage Street.33 City directories from the mid-1920s listed the sites formerly occupied by the Korean community as either vacant or inhabited by individuals of Japanese or Mexican de- scent.34 In the 1950s, crews bulldozed the former Koreatown site to redevelop the land for commercial use. The succeeding oil and gas companies’ occupation of the block physically erased the camp’s traces from the city’s landscape. Visitors to the site today see only parking lots, cinder block buildings, gas stations, and fencing. The only remaining vestige of the past is the adjacent railroad track. But the physical erasure of Pachappa Camp did not erase memories of it. One former res- ident of Dosan’s Republic, Easurk Emsen Charr, published his autobiography in 1961, and another, Mary Paik Lee, produced her memoir three decades later, each reflecting on time spent at Pachappa Camp in the early 1900s. In the 1990s, the Korean American Museum Oral History Project in Los Angeles also sought to collect testimony from individuals who had lived at the site, such as Helen Lee Hong, while John Cha likewise conducted oral histo- ries with past residents. This scholarship has been instrumental in increasing awareness

CALIFORNIA HISTORY 53 about Pachappa Camp among second-generation Korean Americans and the general public. Nevertheless, none of these works brought the stories of Dosan’s Republic back to the actual physical space where the events occurred: Riverside. Erecting the statue of Dosan in downtown Riverside reestablished a connection between this trailblazing and history-making community and the location where that history tran- spired. Humans have a strong capacity to create place memories, which scholar Dolores Hay- den describes as the “ability to connect with both the built and natural environments that are entwined in cultural landscape.”35 Physical places may act as sites of consciousness, culture, and stories, and they have the power to remind individuals of the past. The statue reminds the public about Dosan’s time in Riverside and the settlement he developed there. The dedi- cation of the memorial succeeded in reviving interest in the study of Riverside’sKoreatown. After viewing the memorial, visiting delegates from Korea showed great interest in seeing the site where Dosan once resided, hoping that knowing where he lived would bring them closer to the man.36 The memorial is thus a significant marker, not only serving as a place for the Korean American community to gather, as a physical support for community memory and place attachment, but also promoting awareness about Korean settlement in Riverside and the city’s role in the Korean independence movement.Itactsasapowerfultoolforinforming the public about Dosan through accompanying text and pictorial representations of his experiences in Riverside and abroad. The memorial tells of Koreans’ experiences in or- ange groves and of their fight for sovereignty and self-determination. It presents Dosan’s ideals of cooperation, integrity, reconciliation, education, and hard work. The memorial’s panels depict Dosan picking oranges at Rumsey’s Alta Cresta Groves, studying with chil- dren in America, teaching Bible study, administering the labor bureau, working with the provisional government, and standing before the Korean people. These representations help teach new generations about his legacy—the actions Dosan performed on this ground to support his people, so that they may thrive in America and beyond its borders. It is important to recount how and why the statue of Ahn Chang Ho was erected. The Patriot Ahn Chang-Ho Memorial Foundation of Riverside was established by its chair, Dr. Myung Ki Mike Hong, in 1999 to recognize and commemorate Dosan’slegacyand its relevance to Riverside. More than four hundred individuals and the Korean govern- ment contributed to fund-raising efforts that collected more than $600,000. According to Dr. Hong in his welcoming message during the dedication ceremony on August 11, 2001, “Today is a historical moment. We are here to commemorate Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, a man whose life and actions are of far-reaching, enduring significance to all of us whohavegatheredtogethertohonorhim....Wemustaskourselveswhatlessonswe are to take with us from the life and times of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho. After all, historical events can be meaningless unless they impact future events.” Dr. Hong made it clear that the statue should serve as an “educational tool” for the younger generation to learn about Dosan’s legacies: self-education, self-reliance, and paying close attention to detail. The younger generation should learn what it means to be Korean American. More impor- tantly, the younger generation should be raised and nourished in an environment of timeless, ethical values, one in which each individual is responsible for his or her own education.

54 FALL 2018 Although Pachappa Camp ceased to exist in the early 1900s, its story did not end there. On March 23, 2017, the City of Riverside held a dedication ceremony to designate the former site of Pachappa Camp as the city’s first Point of Cultural Interest. However, the victory was hard fought. The city had no code to allow for a historical designation such as this, so new code had to be created. Ultimately, the city’s Cultural Heritage Board voted unanimously to approve the designation on June 15, 2016, and sent it for final approval by the Riverside City Council. The council unanimously approved the application on December 6, 2016, and later had a Point of Cultural Interest sign installed at the site, which is now a Sempra Energy nat- ural gas facility. The story of Pachappa Camp, its residents, and the important role it played in the Korean independence movement is only now being told. For younger generations to understand their identity, it’s important that they understand their history. For Korean Americans, the story and history of Pachappa Camp and the Koreans who lived there is a building block of character from which they can learn.

NOTES 1. Bong-youn Choy, Koreans in America (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979), 106. 2. Sun Joo Lee, “Dosan’s Activities in Riverside: 1904–1914,” in The Independence Movement and Its Outgrowth by Korean Americans (Los Angeles: Centennial Committee of Korean Immigration to the U.S., 2003), 111–192. 3. Marn Cha and Andrew Cha have argued that Reedley and Dinuba, California, were the first Koreatowns on the U.S. mainland, but both of these communities came into being in the 1910s, several years after Pachappa Camp was founded. Marn J. Cha, Koreans in Central California (1903–1957) (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2010). 4. Abrahamson argues that ethnic enclaves have high ethnic homogeneity as well as shared cultural capital and economic interests. Mark Abrahamson, Urban Enclaves: Identity and Place in America (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996). 5. Lee, “Dosan’sActivitiesinRiverside:1904–1914.” See also Hyung-chan Kim, Tosan Ahn Ch’ang Ho: A Profile of a Prophetic Patriot (Seoul: Tosan Memorial Foundation, 1996), 32–35. 6. Kim, Tosan Ahn Ch’ang Ho,32. 7. How Dosan and Rumsey first became acquainted remains unclear. Some scholars, such as H. Vincent Moses, have speculated that they became acquainted through church involvement, while other, more anecdotal, sources such as Byung-il Kim’s Korean American Pioneer Dosan: A Biography of Chang-Ho Ahn, tell a story of the two meeting as Dosan rested under a tree one afternoon and Rumsey walked by and started a conversation. See Tom Patterson, “Early Riverside Dotted by Housing for Farm Workers,” Press Enterprise (Riverside), October 1, 1989, B5. 8. H. Vincent Moses, “Oranges and Independence: Ahn Chang Ho and Cornelius Earle Rumsey, an Early East- West Alliance in Riverside, 1904–1911,” Riverside Museum Newsletter,June2000. 9. Kim, Tosan Ahn Ch’ang Ho,35 10. H. Vincent Moses, “Oranges and Independence.” 11. According to several Korean immigrants, including Yang Ju Eun and Hwang Sa-sun, these rules were written by Ahn Chang Ho. 12. Gongnip Sinbo, June 7, 1907, 1. 13. According to Gongnip Sinbo, December 6, 1905, In Soo Kim was looking for a hundred workers to pick oranges in Riverside. 14. This April 14, 1906, Gongnip Sinbo article suggests that Korean workers in Riverside worked hard and diligently as instructed by Dosan and gained the trust of white ranchers. 15. The precise date of the establishment of the camp remains unknown, although the block at Cottage and Pachappa became clearly established as a Korean settlement by 1905. It remains unclear whether the Koreans residing in Riverside before Dosan arrived already lived at that location or whether his loan provided the capital for them to move. See Kim, Tosan Ahn Ch’ang Ho,34. 16. Mary P. Lee, Quiet Odyssey (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990), 15. 17. The Santa Fe Rail Station, established in Riverside in 1890, became known as Pachappa Station, and Pachappa later lent its name to the avenue on which the camp and station stood. Following the construction of the railway,

CALIFORNIA HISTORY 55 housing was no longer necessary at the site for Chinese workers, who either moved to another settlement in the city or followed work elsewhere. See Lee, Quiet Odyssey. 18. Riverside Enterprise,December8,1907,section4,23–30. 19. Ibid. 20. Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1918, 178. 21. Personal collection of Mr. Woonha Park. His family lived in Riverside during 1907–1908. 22. Sinhan Minbo, October 5, 1910. In Soo Kim is Helen Ahn’s uncle. Although In Soo Kim is his Korean name, the English spelling is Nin Soo Kim. 23. Easurk E. Charr, The Golden Mountain: The Autobiography of a Korean Immigrant 1895–1960 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 153. 24. Ellen Thun was born in Riverside, where she grew up in an orphanage and worked for room and board as a domestic servant. She wrote every chance she had and left a collection of “heart warmers”—delightful and insightful sketches of Korean life in Riverside. It was published by Korea Times between 1994 and 2000. See Ellen Thun, “Today’s Summit Meeting; Yesterday’sPyongyang,” Korea Times,August14,2000. 25. Bong-youn Choy, Koreans in America (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979), 106. According to several Korean immigrants, including Yang Ju Eun and Hwang Sa-sun, these rules were written by Dosan. 26. H. Vincent Moses, “Oranges and Independence.” 27. H. Vincent Moses, “The Orange Grower Is Not a Farmer: G. Harold Powell, Riverside Orchardists, and the Coming of Industrial Agriculture, 1893–1930,” California History 74 (1995): 22–37. 28. The Cooperative Association, also known as the Mutual Assistance Association, grew from Dosan’sfirst overseas organization, the Friendship Society (Chinmok Hoe), which he established in San Francisco in 1903. After establishing the Gongnip Hyeophoe, Dosan traveled to other Korean settlements in California, including Redlands and San Francisco, to establish Gongnip Hyeophoe branches and observe their implementation. See H. Vincent Moses, “Oranges and Independence.” Lee, “Dosan’sActivitiesinRiverside:1904–1914,” 112; Kim, Tosan Ahn Ch’ang Ho,32. 29. Kim, Tosan Ahn Ch’ang Ho,35. 30. Ibid., 41. 31. H. Vincent Moses,“Oranges and Independence.” 32. Anti-Asian sentiment was also very strong in rural California in the 1910s. In 1913, several Korean fruit pickers living in Riverside were chased from a town called Hemet by a mob. A spokesperson stated that Hemet was to remain a “white man’svalley.” See “All Quiet at Storm Center,” Riverside Daily Press, June 28, 1913, 4. The crowd mistakenly took the Koreans for Japanese workers, and the Japanese imperial government then tried to exercise control of these Koreans living in America. The KNA successful petitioned the U.S. secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan, to make a distinction between Koreans and Japanese in the United States. Despite the diplomatic strength gained by the Korean community from this incident, many Korean farmworkers chose to move to cities, fearing violence in the countryside. 33. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1920 California Federal Population Census Schedules—Riverside Co. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1992). 34. Riverside City and County Directory (Los Angeles: Riverside Directory Company, 1925–1926). 35. Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995), 9. 36. From author discussion with H. Vincent Moses.

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